Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to Bill C-2, an act to amend the Criminal Code (protection of children and other vulnerable persons) and the Canada Evidence Act.
I share the view of the Minister of Justice that the bill would provide a comprehensive child protection regime to protect the most vulnerable members of our society. It would increase the criminal law's protection against child pornography, create a new sexual exploitation offence to protect children between 14 and 18 years of age, increase the maximum sentences for child related offences, facilitate the testimony of child victims and witnesses, protect the other vulnerable victims and witnesses and create new offences of voyeurism.
It is the latter offences that I would like to address more particularly today.
The creation of new offences of voyeurism is an example of how the criminal law can be made to keep abreast of new developments. Voyeurism has probably existed since humankind started living in society. However, the means used in conducting voyeurism have evolved drastically in recent years. For centuries, the only way of observing a person without the knowledge of the person was to hide behind a curtain, look through a window in the dark or look through a hole in the wall. In those days a person who wanted to spy on another person had to get involved personally. One would have thought the risk of being found out would have been a deterrent.
This was still the case up until a few years ago. It was certainly the case when the Criminal Code was first enacted in 1892. Until recently, Canadians were sufficiently protected by prohibiting trespassing at night or mischief. Things have changed since then. The major changes were brought by the advent of the Internet and the miniaturization of cameras and recording devices. Nowadays a camera smaller than a pen can be hidden in a room and allow a person to view what happens in the room while sitting at a computer in another building.
I am not suggesting that we become paranoid, but it is something of which we should be aware. We believe the law should be made to cover the offences committed with new technologies. With Bill C-2, we are called upon to enact such an adaptation of the law to address the misuse of new technologies.
The bill would create new offences to address modern acts of voyeurism, acts committed through small hidden cameras that are hard to detect and acts that, when committed now, do not fall under the criminal law and leave the victims with no other remedy than trying on their own to obtain compensation in civil courts.
The offence of voyeurism has four elements. First, it requires an act of observation or recording. Second, the observation or recording must be conducted in a surreptitious manner, which means that the person observed cannot reasonably be expected to see the person or the means used for observing or recording. Third, the person must be in circumstances giving rise to a reasonable expectation of privacy. Fourth, the elements of one of these specific cases must exist.
The first is a case when the person observed or recorded is in a place where one can reasonably expect a person to be in a state of nudity or engaged in sexual activity. I would think a bathroom, bedroom or fitting room would qualify as such a place. The second case is when a person is in a state of nudity or engaged in sexual activity and the purpose of the observation or recording is to observe or record a person in that state. The third case is when the observation or recording is done for a sexual purpose.
Bill C-2 would also prohibit the distribution of material obtained by the commission of an offence of voyeurism. Canadians value their privacy. In some situations there is a clear and reasonable expectation of privacy. This legislation has been designed with a view to protect this expectation of privacy.
Some may argue that the legislation will prevent the legitimate gathering of information when these techniques become prohibited. For cases where such techniques must be used to serve the public good, the legislation provides a public good defence to an offence of voyeurism. Outside of these extraordinary circumstances the message is clear: using these techniques is unacceptable behaviour now and it will become criminal behaviour when Bill C-2 becomes law.